We supported BJP in 2014, but it failed to come over expectations: Tikait
Muzaffargarh: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Naresh Tikait has said his party openly supported the Modi-led BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, but this fanatic party failed to live up to expectations after coming to power.
Tikait, according to Kashmir Media Service, lamented that the BJP-led Indian government did not acknowledge the killings of around 750 farmers during a 13-month-long protest at Delhi’s borders in 2020-21 and claimed that the saffron party “reeks of dictatorship”.
However, Tikait, the “Chaudhary” of the Balyan Khap of the influential Jat community in western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, said the BKU members are open to supporting any party’s candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The BKU, part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmers’ unions, had participated in the major protests against the Centre in 2020-21 over the now-repealed agri-marketing laws.
“The Bharatiya Kisan Union is a big organization where every member has some relation or link with one or the other party. Some are relatives of the candidates, some belong to the same community (as that of a candidate) or have ties at individual levels with them. So we are not very successful in making such decisions (for the BKU members) on whom to support,” Tikait said.
“I have no hesitation in saying that we openly supported the BJP in 2014. I do not have any hesitation or reluctance in admitting it. But they did not leave up to our expectations. They had talked about ‘Ram Raj.
They might have worked well according to their standards but a lot remained ignored,” Tikait told PTI at his family home in Sisauli village in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.
